A few eagle-eyed residents were able to catch a fleeting glimpse of a fiery unidentified flying object as it streaked across the sky on Monday night.
No videos or pictures of the incident were captured, therefore the momentary spectacle remains an unidentified flying object – for now.
However, Tiyen Miller of the Cayman Islands Astronomical Society says there are two possible theories that could explain the mysterious object.
The first is that it could have been a meteorite.
According to NASA, 48.5 tons of meteoritic material falls on the Earth each day, and “almost all the material is vaporized in Earth’s atmosphere, leaving a bright trail fondly called ‘shooting stars’.”
If it were a meteorite, it was not documented, and therefore confirmation may be impossible.
Miller believes another option is that the object might have been a retired low-orbiting satellite that was disposed of by purposefully dragging it back into Earth’s atmosphere, where it burst into flames upon re-entry.
According to Miller, low-orbiting satellites circumnavigate the Earth every 90 minutes at an average speed of 17,000mph, at a distance of about 200-250 miles above our planet’s surface – which is equivalent to “the distance between Cayman and Jamaica”.
“Satellites generally just ‘coast’ in their orbits through the vacuum of space at that altitude – however, when a satellite is retired, it [is] adjusted so that its altitude lowers and it begins to drag in Earth’s atmosphere,” he said. “This drag causes the satellite to heat up tremendously and essentially burn up, such that it’s unlikely that much debris even reaches the ground.
“However, these de-orbiting events can be quite a spectacle, under certain circumstances.”
According to Orbital Focus, a UK-based website that tracks satellite re-entries, the fiery spectacle could have been CZ-2D DEB which fell back to Earth around 10:32pm UTC making its closest point of approach over the Bahamas.
CZ-2D DEB was launched into space on 19 Nov. 2018 by the People’s Republic of China at the Xichang Space Center.
Orbital Focus describes the satellite as, “One of a triplet of simultaneously-launched satellites… for ‘electromagnetic environment detection and related technological tests'”.
The time of re-entry does not perfectly match up with 8:10pm Cayman time, which some residents have recalled. However, Orbital Focus does note on its website that there are margins for error that could last anywhere between minutes to hours – before or after the predicted time.
Even though the satellite debris is said to have come to rest over the Bahamas, it is still possible that it could have been visible from parts of Cayman as it travelled through the night sky.
On previous occasions, residents on Grand Cayman have caught glimpses of SpaceX launches, including a Falcon 9 rocket launch three months ago.
Related Videos
Shooting stars! They are Stars that run out of energy. They will fall to somewhere.